Samberson, A.A. and Mary L. Patton

Then and Now, Lea County Families, Vol I, 1979
Printed with permission of Beth Reed, Lea County Genealogical Society

While not the earliest pioneers in Lea County, New Mexico, the A.A. Samberson family does have rather deep roots. Those roots commenced in 1929 upon the arrival of A.A. "Buck" Samberson and his wife, Mary Lucile Patton and their two sons, Charles Gene and Edward Alton. Gene married Gail Carson and Edward married Peggy Brown, who was formerly of Gallup, New Mexico.

Having lived in Coleman, Texas during the Depression year of 1929, I lost my job as did many others. My older brother J.L Samberson also known as "Bill", decided we would come to West Texas and look for work.

We loaded a chuck box and our bed rolls into Bill's 1928 Model “A”  Ford Roadster and headed for Wink, Texas, since we had heard there was oilfield work there. What we did not hear was that there was at least 10 men looking for every available job. We spent several days around Wink and Kermit, Texas, trying to find jobs. Failing to find work, we headed for Jal, New Mexico, because we had heard there were jobs opening up in Jal and Hobbs. We stopped in Jal and tried to hire out with a pipeline construction company. Like everywhere else there were plenty of men looking for work. Being young and single, Bill and I lost out to older married men with families to support, which was only right.

Leaving Jal one morning we headed out for Hobbs, New Mexico. The road was not much more than a trail and much of the trail was through sand. We would ether meet or come across cars and trucks that were stuck in the sand. There was only one thing to do, pull out of the sandy ruts of the road  and try to go around the stuck vehicle which resulted in our getting stuck in the loose sand. We pushed and dug out our vehicle, many times, finally making it to Hobbs.

We were in Hobbs several days before ether of us found a job.  We camped out at a windmill and earthen tank on the east side of what is now North Turner almost due east of the Good Samaritan Village. Bill started to work for the old Midwest Refining Company which subsequently became Standard Oil & Gas Company, which is now known as Amoco Production Company. I found a job dressing tools on a water well drilling machine. The work was not steady and I was able to work only part of the time. Then I found a steady job with Sularian Oil Company which had a lease on the H.D. McKinley property five miles northwest of Hobbs. I worked on this job until June 10th, 1930 at which time George F. Getty traded other leases for the Sularian lease. I began working for Getty the same day and stayed with this job for the next ten and one-half years, with a few layoffs due to the depression.

In August 1930, I was transferred to Getty's Dooley lease located twenty miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. During the first part of September of 1930, I sent a telegram to Lucille Patton, who was living in Hobbs with and Aunt and Uncle, telling her I would be in Hobbs on September 9th. We had been going together for two years and had planned for some time, to be married. We loaded the car with her clothing and then drove to Lovington where we bought a marriage license. Ten we drove to Carlsbad where we were married by a Methodist minister. We moved into an apartment which I had rented in Carlsbad. Eleven months later I was laid off as the Depression had really set in. We returned to Coleman, Texas staying on the farm with Mr. and Mrs. G.H. Patton, Lucile's parents, for about two months.

Then we returned to Hobs and I went to work for Phillips Petroleum Co. as a pipe liner. I was paid thirty-five cents an hour or three dollars and fifteen cents for a nine hour day. Upon our return to Hobbs, we moved into the old Clifton Courts which were located on South Dal Paso and Marland Streets. We paid five dollars per month which included utilities.

During the early days in Hobbs, it was a boom town, buildings going up everywhere. The town was divided into three sections: (10 Hobbs, centered around Broadway and Turner Streets; (2) New Hobbs was along Main Street; and (3) All Hobbs was west of Dal Paso Street. There was no pavement at this time, when it rained; the streets were big mud holes. Building and houses were being constructed and real estate was being sold even though times were hard. Hobbs attracted both good and bad people; there were business people, oil field workers, gamblers, hanger-ons, etc. Some of the business houses had slot machines ether in them or in front of their stores on the sidewalks, Hobbs was a rough place to live during those early days.

After living in the Clifton Courts I bought a partly furnished house and two lots just south of the Hobbs water tower. The cost was twenty five dollars to purchase. Times were really getting bad and people were leaving Hobbs in droves and they were selling their property for whatever they could get. I paid the house mover fifteen dollars to move the house.

Lucille and I were still living in the house during the winter of 1931/32. I was working for Getty and batching with George Jones on the Getty State A lease at Oil Center, New Mexico. We were pumping water for several steam drilling rigs. During that winter, the coldest Northerner blew in in which I have experienced. In the house in which we were batching, we had a wood burning kitchen range with natural gas piped in to it. We had the range red hot that particular night and it was sill so cold in the room a bucket of eggs froze and burst. We had heard it had gotten to (33) thirty-three degrees below zero that night and the next day the high was seventeen below zero.

When President Franklin Roosevelt started the N.R.A. program in 1933, I took a steady job with Getty Oil Company. We moved the house to the company's lease northwest of Hobbs. The wells on this lease would flow between 15,000 and 18,000 barrels per day. During part of the Depression years much of the oil was sold for .10 cents per barrel.